Part of the human condition is comparison – it is quite simply unavoidable.
We all love to play Revisionist History and compare situations of today with those we remember from our past, and Michigan being effectively slapped on the wrist for their illegal scouting system orchestrated by Connor Stalions had a lot of folks speaking out about whether the punishment fits.
Over the weekend, following the NCAA’s ruling, there were a lot of folks pointing out the hypocrisy of the NCAA, and while there were certainly some stretches of the imagination included in some of those, others brought up some excellent points worth recapping.
Before digging in I want to get a few things out of the way.
- I firmly believe the 2023 national title belongs in Ann Arbor. They were a super-talented and connected team on a mission, proved by how they were galvanized by the negative spotlight and turned it into fuel. Nothing, and no one, were going to stand in their way of winning it all.
- My grudge lies solely with the hypocrisy of the NCAA, who are unable to find any sort of consistency in their rulings. They point to precedent only when convenient, and that’s where I feel like pointing out some of these previous instances is relevant.
- It’s really tough to compare any previous era of college athletics with where we currently are, as there’s no shortage of NCAA storylines involving boosters paying players, or things along those lines. Now that’s effectively just been repackaged as NIL – so for that reason we’re staying away from a lot of those prior instances (Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze and “Tattoo-gate” at Ohio State come to mind). But not all of those are off limits.
1) NCAA bans Akron from postseason based on low APR scores.
RELEVANCE: Michigan was hit with no postseason ban.
I can already see my replies and DM’s now – “Student athletes” mean they have to perform in the classroom first. I hear you, and I agree.
Back in May, Akron learned that their multiyear Academic Progress Rate score was 914, well below the minimum of 930 for postseason eligibility. They became the first FBS team to be barred from the postseason play based on APR score since 2014, when Idaho was banned.
Granted, the NCAA has to have some sort of penalty for low APR scores, otherwise there is no incentive for staying above the 930 threshold, I just can’t see how punishing a group of players who have worked their tails off all off season, then go on to win games on the field, should get punished with the unique opportunity to not experience a bowl game. Here’s a suggestion that might work in place of a postseason ban – teams under a 930 APR score are only allowed to sign “X” amount of players out of high school under a certain GPA and testing score, and transfers have to fit a higher academic profile as well.
Bottom line: If you win 6 games at a place like Akron, you should have the ability to enjoy a bowl game.
Regarding Michigan, the NCAA had initially stood firm about a postseason ban, even noting that a multi-year ban would have been appropriate in the infractions report. But when their official ruling came out a few days ago they noted that “a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program.” Based on that, the NCAA opted for a financial penalty instead.
APR scores are determined by tracking academic eligibility and retention. So the NCAA draws the line at not punishing coaches or staff who are no longer there, but is willing to punish kids for players who are no longer there.
Further, the NCAA has in fact “unfairly penalized student athletes for the actions of coaches” no longer with the program previously. Remember when Ohio State was hit with a postseason ban during the 2012 season when they finished undefeated following the 2011 “Tattoo-Gate” scandal under Jim Tressel’s leadership?
I know, I know…I said I’d stay away from “Tattoo-gate.” Moving on.
2) Division III Mary Hardin-Baylor stripped of national title after coach loaned his car to player in “desperate” need.
RELEVANCE: Michigan was hit with no postseason ban and kept their national title.
This is the one that really fires me up.
Back in October of 2019, following an 18-month investigation, the NCAA announced their decision to strip the 2016 Division III national title.
Well, a player in head coach Pete Fredenburg’s program was in desperate need of a car, and Pete had a 2006 Subaru wasting space in his front yard, so he let the player use it during the 2016 season. Come 2017 Pete let the player use it again during the season.
Fredenburg also let one other student borrow the car briefly – lasting less than an hour – before the car broke down and had to be towed. MHB self-reported that violation.
Because of that, the NCAA brought a sledgehammer in.
Prior to the NCAA’s decision, UMHB tried to get out in front of it by self-imposing a 2-year probationary period, committed to enhanced compliance training, and fined themselves $2,500. They also suspended Fredenburg for 3-months without pay and issued a 3-game suspension to begin the 2018 season.
The NCAA deemed that wasn’t enough. They told UMHB they had to vacate all their wins from the 2016 and 2017 football seasons. They went a combined 29-1 during that span, their only loss coming to the hands of Mount Union in the 2017 title game. There’s no convincing anyone the loan of a car to a Division III athlete in need had any bearing on any of those 30-games.
Fredenburg shared in a statement, and later told reporters, “I’ve spent my entire career as a football coach investing in kids. In this instance, I unintentionally broke NCAA rules. I regret this, and I accept responsibility.”
“I have a passion to help youngsters,” the coach later shared. “He desperately needed some help. I felt like I was okay with the interpretation of the rules. I had an old car that was in my driveway and I loaned it to him.”
Despite the punishment, including the early season suspension, Fredenburg led UMHB back to a national title in 2018.
3) Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush and USC get hammered
Relevance: The postseason ban logic used for Michigan was not afforded to USC.
There is perhaps no fan base with a bigger axe to grind than USC.
Hit with sanctions stemming from the Pete Carroll era, USC was punished for 7 years, hit with a 2-year bowl ban, had 30 scholarships revoked, 14 wins vacated, took away a 2004 national title AND Bush’s Heisman Trophy, all leading to the end of a dynasty that was on an epic roll.
The NCAA found USC guilty of a lack of institutional control after Reggie Bush and basketball star OJ Mayo were both found to have received impermissible gifts and payments.
By 2010, Bush ended up voluntarily forfeiting that Heisman, despite being arguably the most electric college football player the game has perhaps ever seen.
Once legal proceedings began to take place to pay players, the Heisman Trust started to have conversations about giving Bush the Heisman back nearly 20 years after initially taking it away – proving that sometimes you can put the toothpaste back in the tube. Under mounting pressure, Bush voluntarily forfeited the trophy back in 2010.
One issue here is the Heisman Trust acknowledged the NCAA’s previous stance on amateurism was outdated and that since players could now be compensated for NIL, Bush should get his Heisman back, but in what other realm can we judge broken rules of 20 years ago by new standards of today?
Without spending a bunch of time re-hashing what took place out in LA decades ago – it’s hard to look back and see the steep price USC had to pay. You could argue, aside from SMU and their “death penalty” back in 1987, it was the harshest penalty every handed to a Division I program.
What Michigan did was meant to provide a clear advantage. What USC did not come remotely close to that.
This is also the perfect time to remind everyone of that little quote from the NCAA about doling out punishment affecting individuals no longer associated with the program – “a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program.”
Pete Carroll left to become the head coach of the Seahawks while the investigation took place and Lane Kiffin took over and had to deal with the fallout and sanctions that led to a massive depletion of his roster and what most coaches would consider just a handful of scholarship athletes.
While that logic applied to Michigan this time around, decades ago they did not afford USC that same courtesy for whatever reason.
The result of all this, is that many attached to USC feels like Michigan, somehow and someway, got preferential treatment.
Is it because of the current landscape of college football is so much different? Sure, probably. But that’s not an answer that a fanbase like USC’s is going to accept and go quietly into the night.
One thing seems certain – the NCAA’s decision to back off their postseason ban feelings makes it seem the era of the organization handing out postseason bans for rules violations is over, and hefty fines are stepping into to take their place.
The problem I believe the NCAA is underestimating, is with big donors already stepping up at a lot of programs to fund NIL, there are going to be mega-donors out there willing to help break the rules and pay the fine to bring a national title back to a rabid and hungry fan base. They’ll just follow the blueprint Harbaugh laid out.
That blueprint? Win big. Leave. Someone pays up. Everyone moves on. Title stays. No asterisk.
(Honorable Mention) Arizona State’s vacated wins for recruiting violations
RELEVANCE: The NCAA stated the illegal scouting system was devised to provide an advantage, and Harbaugh operated with a blatant disregard for rules, yet no U of M wins were vacated.
Despite not involving player eligibility whatsoever, the NCAA forced the Sun Devils to vacate two wins from the 2022 season and eight wins from the 2021 season after an investigation found staff members participated in illegal recruiting practices during the COVID pandemic restrictions.
Harbaugh did serve a three-game suspension for recruiting violations to open the 2023 season stemming from recruiting violations as well during COVID. He was also hit with a four-year show-cause based those violations…but show-causes mean nothing to someone in Harbaugh’s shoes – 61 years old and once again rebuilding an NFL franchise into a consistent winner with no plans to return to college football even before these punishments.
Granted, both teams broke those rules at an unprecedented time in the country’s history, when the NCAA was doing their best to try and stop the spread of the virus with the information we all had, and try to find a way to provide a level playing field – something that seemed impossible at the time. So maybe the punishment for breaking them should be more serious.
Whether we like it or not, and whether we agree with the punishments or not, past examples like these will have us continuing playing Revisionist History the next time a major NCAA investigation takes place.
With a new landscape of college athletics, perhaps then we will have a more apples-to-apples comparison regarding the Michigan ruling, but for now these are a few relevant examples of what we have to compare.
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